San Juan sockeye

Well, maybe the rain finally brought them in. We got four nice sockeye for two rods this morning, biggest was 7.5 lbs. We are not targeting them and are trolling at 2 plus knots dodging the seiners. But nice alternative when there aren't many kings around!

I was beginning to think our results from before were an anomaly. We've picked up a few sockeye here and there, including one today. I've been watching and talking with the seiners and gillnetters for a couple weeks now, and results have been dismal. Seen a lot of empty nets. But they killed them today. Watched the final results of three different seiner pulls and would say each of them had at least 100 fish, and the biggest one probably had 200+. Before today, the best pull I'd seen was probably 30 fish.

Well over 90% of the Fraser sockeye are coming down the inside. The late summers (Adams/Lower Shuswap) normally hold in the gulf off of the mouth of the river for a couple weeks or more before going upstream. They might drift down into the US side.

Because the US has a share (quota) that is based on the updated runsize the fleets (Indian and non-Indian) will fish to get their shares.

Hopefully they will be done netting before next weekend. The fog made it interesting running out to the west side of San Juan the last couple mornings.

Yes, I have heard the same about the Fraser fish coming down the inside. But this is the southwest side of San Juan Island, so I don't think they are inside fish that drifted down from the mouth of the river.

Today appeared to be even better for the commercial sockeye fishery than yesterday. Watched one non-native seiner this am that pulled probably 1000 fish in a set. I don't know what the giant reinforced dip nets are called, but they pulled at least six full dips out of the seine at the side of the boat and I'd guess there is at least 100 fish in each dip, probably more. Then they pulled in the seine with even more fish. Wish I could figure out how to catch those buggers on a more regular basis...

Salty,

The giant dip net thingy is called a "brail." They brail fish out of the pursed up seine net.

Sg

Thanks Salmo, nice to know the appropriate parlance!

While we're on the topic, on the seine boat, what is the guy on the stern doing with the 20 foot or longer pole? It looks like it has a tennis ball on the end and he's poking at fish in the pursed seine.

He was taking some good stabs, as if he was bonking them before bringing on board.

Mike

Maybe he was smacking the seals as they tried to take them out of the seine.

There is usually a cup on the end of the pole (what you described as a tennis ball). When it hits the water it makes a popping sound (like a hula popper). That sound keeps the fish lower in the net, concentrating them at the bottom. Makes it easier for the brailer to get more fish per scoop, and limits the number of escapees that might jump out of the top portion of the net.

Yep. That had to be it. Thank you for the reply!

Mike

Fever, it's called the "plunger." Dogfish accurately described its use. The popping noise frightens fish away from the only open gap in the two ends of the seine net. They don't want to lose any of those "silver dollars" swimming around in the purse.

Sg

"Plunger" makes sense, that's kind of what it looks/sounds like.

While we're getting educated, what is the chaser boat called?

Skiff

Ha, figured it had a fancy term like the brail! But no, just a skiff.

A lot of those seine skiffs have diesel engines just as powerful as the seine boats main engine. And to think that in B.C. seine skiffs were required to be oar powered until not so many years ago.

Watching them in action up in Southeast Alaska was something to marvel at. A very effective way to fish.

Yes, I got two full weeks worth watching on the west side of San Juan Island and inside off of Lopez. Really interesting. They were seining right outside the house we rented, so I got to watch (and hear) the full deal. We also stopped fishing several times at the request of my five year old so we could pull up and watch the end results of the seine.

One day last week I was fishing inside next to a non-tribal seiner when WDFW enforcement showed up. They got right on the rail - like within five feet of the seiner - to apparently make sure everything was done correctly. I got on the other side so I could watch the seine and see what came up. We then got to watch as the guy in the skiff fished into the seine to tail and gingerly release eight chinook with WDFW literally watching over his shoulder. Such a better way to fish than gillnets.

Unfortunately the tribal seiners don't have to follow the same rules as the non-tribal. The tribes get to keep their "by-catch" of Chinook. I made the mistake of reading thru some of the commercial regulations a few years ago on the WDFW site. If I remember correctly they have a certain quota of "by-catch" they are allowed to keep. I am sure they are completely honest when they report their catch.